The Character Creation Area.

Reader found himself in an enormous hall with solid marble floors, stone walls, and ceilings.

“What the…” Reader muttered under his breath.

There seems to be thousands of people on the floor. However, it also seemed to Reader that he had landed in a madhouse. Everywhere he looked, people were waving and gesturing their hands while mumbling to themselves.

“Oh, another one? You sure are late!” A perky voice said.

Reader glanced to his left and saw a cute girl with brown hair wearing some sort of red-striped uniform that gave Reader the impression that she was a cross between a receptionist and a carnival worker. There were other people dressed like her, wandering the hall, seemingly tending to the mad folk. The girl beside Reader also had brown cat ears and a long cat-like tail swishing behind her.

“What’s all this now?” Reader asked.

“Ah, sorry,” the cat-girl said and quickly bowed towards Reader. “Welcome to the character creation hall!” She said, “Please say or think to yourself ‘Open Status Screen’ to view your status!”

“Open status screen?” Reader asked.

A large holographic display suddenly popped up before Reader.

“Whoa! What the fuck?” Reader said.

The girl smiled. “This is your status screen. Don’t worry, it is absolutely private. Only you can see your own status. Take note of the Appearance tab on the top. If you tap on that with your finger, you’ll be shown your avatar’s appearance editor screen where you can modify your appearance however you like. Please note that once you leave this area, the appearance settings will be made permanent and that tab will be removed, so it is best for you to decide carefully how you want to look.”

“Ah, no wonder everyone is poking at thin air,” Reader mumbled to himself as he tapped on the tab.

The status screen changed to one with hundreds of options and sliders and a rotating 3d model of a humanoid which Reader surmised must be his avatar.

“Good grief,” Reader said, “Why is my hair purple, and why am I a kid?”

“Ah, all of you will be reincarnated at 18 years of age,” said the girl, “Sorry, but that is a fixed global setting.”

“Ageism much?” Reader mumbled as he tried out a slider that made him fat as a hippo.

There was suddenly a small commotion not far from Reader. A guy was ranting at one of the cat-girls. “Are you kidding me? I can’t even choose to be an elf?” He said.

The cat girl bowed apologetically. “I’m sorry. Humans can only reincarnate as humans.”

“This is some bullshit!” The guy declared.

Reader glanced at the cat-girl beside him. “There sure are a lot of people here. I thought reincarnation was supposed to be a rare occurence.”

The brown cat-girl nodded, “Yes indeed it is. There are usually less than 50 each cycle for earth sector.”

“Earth sector?”

“Ah, yes. Earth sector consists of all parallel earths. There are more than 500 million parallel earths you see.”

“So 50 people out of 500 million earths is the norm? How many are there in this cycle?”

“We have received about 60,000 candidates from earth-sector in this cycle,” the cat girl said, “this is due to some unprecedented events on some of the parallel worlds. The higher ups have made the decision to make a one time exception and accept more people for reincarnation this cycle due to these events.”

“Really? What happened?” Asked Reader.

“Oh, on one earth, Elon Musk unveiled his fleet of advanced self-driving trucks. The AI went haywire and became hell-bent on running over teenagers and young adults.”

“That’s terrible,” Reader said.

“Not as bad as what happened on another earth,” the cat-girl said, “Their earth was invaded by extraterrestrial sentient trucks. For some reason, the trucks attacked high-schools and colleges first.”

“Wut…”

“On another earth, a COVID infected truck driver became a zombie. Whomever he bites then became zombie truck drivers with an urge to drive trucks into people.”

“… You’re fucking with me right?”

“On another earth, Putin invaded Europe with an army of trucks powered by the pure angst of mother Russia…”

“I’m sensing a theme here…” Reader said.

“Yes, me too,” the cat-girl said thoughtfully. “This only seems to be happening for earth-sector. It must be something to do with earths in particular.”

“…”

“Anyway, how is your character appearance coming along?” Asked the cat-girl.

Reader glanced at his screen and saw a bloated 3D model with tiny legs, huge ass, big chest, small head with huge droopy ears and rainbow hair.

“Uhhhh,” said Reader, “Is there a reset button?”